


Not Fine

by LibraryMage



Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Autistic Character, Autistic Sabine Wren, Brother-Sister Relationships, Gen, Platonic Cuddling, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-08
Updated: 2017-07-08
Packaged: 2018-11-29 07:03:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11435652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LibraryMage/pseuds/LibraryMage
Summary: Sabine is sick and insists that she's fine.(cw for illness and heavy-hitting pharmaceutical drugs)





	Not Fine

Sabine had been insisting all day that she was fine, and every member of the crew knew it was a lie.  She’d been unusually quiet and slow to respond to whatever anyone said to her.  At first they thought she was just overwhelmed and needed a quiet day, but that assumption was crushed when Hera caught her sneaking a dose of cold medicine from the medkit.

“Okay, what’s wrong?” she asked.  Sabine jumped, closing her hand around the pill and hiding it behind her back as she turned to face Hera.

“Nothing,” she said.

“You don’t take that for nothing,” Hera said.  “Sabine, if you’re sick, it’s not a big deal.”

“I’m not sick,” Sabine insisted.  “I just…don’t feel right.”

Hera sighed and crossed the room.  When she got close enough to Sabine, she removed one of her gloves and gently put one hand against the girl’s cheek.  Hera winced.

“Well, if you’re not sick, I’m amazed, because you’ve definitely got a fever,” she said.  “Your throat hurt at all?”

Sabine shook her head.

“Probably not a cold, then,” Hera said.  “How’s your head feel?”

“Like someone stuffed it full of cotton,” Sabine muttered, resentful of Hera’s attempts to help.

She reached past Sabine and pulled a small bottle of pills from the medkit.

“These’ll help more for what you’ve got,” she said.  “Just one, though.  They hit pretty heavily.”

Sabine nodded and dropped the cold medicine back into its container before shaking one pill out of the bottle Hera offered.  She dry-swallowed it.  Hera shook her head.  Small victories.

* * *

 

Half an hour later, Sabine realized that Hera _really_ hadn’t been kidding when she said the meds were heavy-hitters.  She could feel herself slipping, her eyelids growing heavy, and it was harder than it should be to stay sitting up.  She stumbled to her feet, intending to go straight to her room and lie down, but before she could even take a step, she collapsed back to where she’d been sitting beside Zeb.

“Woah, careful,” Zeb said as she fell.  He realized something was wrong as Sabine slumped against his shoulder, her eyes barely open.

“Kid, you okay?” he asked, nudging her shoulder.  She didn’t answer.

“You even awake?”

Sabine nodded slightly and mumbled something incoherent.

“Alright,” he said.  “Come on.”

He easily picked up Sabine and started toward her room.  Instinctively, she threw her arms around his neck and held on, but she didn’t seem to get any more conscious.  When they reached her room, Zeb tried to lay her down on her bed, only for her to cling tighter to him.

“Come on, Sabine” he said again, trying to pull her arms away from him.  For someone who was barely awake, she had one hell of a grip.

Finally, Zeb gave up.  He sat down on the bed, Sabine still holding onto him.  Soon enough, she’d fall fully asleep and let go, he reasoned.  As the minutes dragged by, Sabine’s breathing grew deeper and more even, and still she clung to him like a baby opossum clinging to its mother.

“Great,” Zeb muttered.  “Kid’s probably gonna get _me_ sick now.”  Still, he made no effort to move.  Even with the risk of catching whatever Sabine had, this was kind of…nice.

* * *

 

Zeb didn’t realize he’d nodded off until he woke up, his head snapping up only for him to see Hera standing in the still-open doorway.  He and Sabine still had their arms tightly around each other.

“How long have you been standing there?” he asked, his voice hushed so he wouldn’t wake Sabine up.

“Maybe ten seconds,” she said, her hand flying up to her face in a fake attempt to hide her smile.  Zeb glared at her.

“I think it’s sweet,” she said.

“You’re not gonna help me get out of this, are you?” he asked.

“She should be okay in another hour or so,” Hera said.  She gave him a sarcastic little wave as she turned and walked away.

Zeb sighed.  He guessed he could deal with another hour.


End file.
